REFLEX ATTRACTION

by ardavenport

- - - Part 1

Janeway sat in her chair, waiting for the session to begin.

It was a padded, high backed chair with armrests, the kind that they had in the conference room. She didn't know that they had any of those in Sickbay. Commander Chakotay sat a few meters to her left, in an ordinary, gray and metal chair, no armrests, no headrest. The doctor set on her right, sitting at a small table and in the same type of chair as the commander.

Janeway's eyes cautiously peeked toward Chakotay. He sat placidly in his seat, hands folded in his lap and facing the doctor who read his padd with no acknowledgment that there was anyone else in the room. He had a small array of medical instruments with him. Tricorder, scanner, hypospray and a few other things. There was also an empty chair at the table and a box on the floor next to him, but nothing on it to indicate what it was.

Janeway knew that the minute she'd walked into Sickbay at 0600 hours – exactly when the doctor had told her to show up – that the therapy had started. Or perhaps it was when the computer had gotten her up at 0515 in her quarters and then recited the doctor's instructions for her morning routine. Or when Neelix had showed up at her door with a breakfast that the doctor had ordered for her. She'd had no intention of eating it, but ended up accepting and even nibbling a few bites of sweet roll because the doctor had included replicated coffee on the menu.

Or perhaps it had started the night before, when the doctor had shown up at her ready room at 2100 hours with a sedative to enforce his prescription that she get a good night's rest. Lieutenant Commander Tuvok had accompanied the doctor. Tuvok had not said much, but his presence, standing at attention at her desk, demonstrated his cooperation with the doctor. Tuvok had already spoken to Senoebi. "He has a remarkably disciplined mind," was what her security officer had said about the alien healer when she'd asked for the Vulcan's opinion. That was practically a statement of approval coming from Tuvok.

Janeway uncrossed and then crossed her legs again. They all sat at four sides of a square, with the door to the small circular room making the fourth point. The biobed and specialized medical equipment normally used in the isolation ward had been removed. The wall displays were shut down, the sterile room was bare except for them and their chairs, table and things. Bright light shone down on the center of the room. "Acclimation therapy" was the term the doctor had used to describe this procedure. But she didn't feel like she was getting used to sitting in the same room as Commander Chakotay. She felt the same involuntary sensation that had gone through her the day before, after waking up in Sickbay and seeing the commander, still unconscious on another biobed. She had avoided him completely after that. He was obviously recovered from his injury, thanks to the doctor. And Senoebi.

"This is a very invasive thing. There will be after effects," Senoebi had insisted, his greenish face sickly gray in the harsh emergency lighting on the space station. Chakotay had lain injured between them. He'd gone into shock with a head injury. People ran about, yelling, screaming. Senoebi was one of the few people doing something useful immediately after the explosion. He was a healer, a telekinetic healer, though his occupational uniform hadn't meant anything to Janeway until Neelix had explained it to her earlier when he had briefed her on the various peoples on the space station. But Senoebi had hesitated over Chakotay's injury.

Senoebi had never seen a Human before.

He had held back, his four hands close, but not touching Chakotay, unsure if anything he did would help or cause further harm. And there had been other injuries around them to treat, other species from this area of space that he did know and could heal. And smoke and scattered fires and radiation blocked their communicators to Voyager.

"There will be after effects."

There certainly were, Janeway had to agree.

The door opened and Senoebi entered. Janeway's first thrill of terror dissolved into a hot flush that rose up from inside her. Her hands clinched and a part of her mind shrank back, horrified by the responses of her body. Senoebi calmly entered and walked directly across the room toward her. To Janeway, it seemed that he moved in slow motion. She fixated on every step, every crease of his clothes as he moved.

She sat tense in her chair as she watched him approach. Dark shoes, crisp beige pants, a pale blue over tunic and a dark coat. He had four arms, like a Terellian. All four of them hung loosely at his sides, the upper pair slightly forward to the lower pair. His skin was pale green, the long, sparse, brownish hair combed back on his head did not cover the line of his head. She focused on all the details of him as a picture without words.

Staring up at his very human-like face, she looked for his eyes; they were brown and Human-like. But he did not make eye-contact with her; he looked at her, not into her as he had before. Senoebi inclined his head down toward her before reaching down and drawing her up, out of the chair. Her body instantly relaxed at his touch and he guided her to the center of the room, under the light. He looked at her face, but not her eyes and then down at her body, like an inspection. His arms wrapped around her, one pair at her lower back, one pair over her upper arms, almost at her shoulders.

Janeway's heart pounded, her body surrounded and pressed next to the alien healer. Flushed and dizzy, she felt as if she were swaying with it, blissfully letting it fill her, her face next to the other warm body. She settled into it like a steaming bath and stared out at colors and shapes without registering what she was looking at.

The side of her face rested against smooth, soft fabric. She breathed in a faint floral scent. There was also a sharper, but still faint smell, like sweat, but it wasn't Human. Janeway rarely got close enough, but it was really true that you could identify alien species by how they smelled . . .

Janeway started, her arms at her sides and Senoebi's four arms wrapped around her. She was looking toward the doctor, still seated at his table. It seemed as if he sat in shadow, or perhaps the lights over her were just much brighter. She though she made eye contact with him, but he averted his eyes downward.

She no longer heard her own heartbeat in her ears. She was torso to torso with Senoebi; his body temperature seemed to be about the same as hers. The whole front of her body was warm and sweaty from the physical contact and her underwear was damp and clammy, but she kept still.

She had been standing there for . . . how long?

Senoebi's arms surrounded her, pinning her arms, but he wasn't holding her tightly. His hands simply rested under her shoulders and on her lower back. She wasn't sure, but she didn't think he'd moved at all. For how long?

Janeway closed her eyes, trying to think. She had not been thinking at all, that was the problem. All thought had just shut down as soon as Senoebi walked in. The same way it had happened the day before. Janeway had to admit that she had been warned about it.

As soon as she had agreed to let Senoebi use her body as a guide to stabilize Chakotay's injuries on the space station one of his hands seized her chin and his thoughts penetrated hers. Instantly hypnotized by him, she had submitted to the wave of alien thought that plunged through her body.

The doctor's clinical explanation was that one of the most common responses of non-telepaths to mental invasion was a sexual one. Gender did not seem to matter; the effect seemed to be equally common among males and females, especially among Earth Humans. Of course, Tuvok knew that as well. The Vulcan had mind melded with her before and they both knew what happened in the first few seconds before Vulcan discipline and Human emotions found their equilibrium.

But Senoebi's methods had been ruthlessly physical. He had invaded her completely. He had drowned her thoughts into a roar that filled her ears and swelled into a tingling heat that entered her whole body. Lights had sparkled and filled her vision with many colors, too compelling to look away from and she had suddenly become aware of every exquisite point in her whole body. It had been the most sensual twenty seconds she had ever experienced.

Then Senoebi laid her down on top of Chakotay and it had felt as if she was sinking into him, breaking through layer by layer until every part of her existed in complete union with him. Janeway did not remember anything coherent after that until she woke up in Sickbay a couple of hours later.

Janeway opened her eyes. The doctor was still sitting at his table. The doctor had said that Senoebi told him that he had simply used the fastest means available to gain control over her, to use her to help Chakotay. But when Senoebi had warned her about "after effects" she had not imagined that the experience would effectively program her with an intense pleasure reflex as soon as she laid eyes on either Chakotay or Senoebi. The doctor had described it as being almost an addiction.

Janeway swallowed and it sounded unusually loud in her ears in the quiet room. She flexed her shoulders slightly and moved her fingers. She hadn't moved in . . . how long? Her feet were starting to hurt.

Senoebi hadn't moved at all. No fidgeting, no motion. His chest didn't move or expand like a Human's did, but Janeway could detect a slight, regular tension and release in his whole body. And she could feel the faint touch of his breath at the top of her head. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. And then she stopped. Her body was still pressed up next to Senoebi and any movement at all made her rub against him. She did not want that.

Her body no longer responded at all to her proximity with the alien healer, so obviously the acclimation portion of this session was complete. But she still felt the creeping unease that there was more to come and especially, more that she could not control.

How long was this supposed to last?

She took a deep breath. She wanted to wait for them to say something to her. If she spoke first then she would be immediately vulnerable to whatever was next in the therapy. That was how therapy always worked.

But the deck was feeling very hard on the soles of her feet and Senoebi hadn't moved a millimeter. He could obviously wait her out.

"I don't suppose you'd be willing tell me how long we're supposed to stand here like this?" She didn't move her head at all to look at Senoebi. In fact, she was still looking in the doctor's direction, but she spoke to the healer.

"Only as long as you think necessary," his smooth, even tenor answered her.

A cryptic answer. That was not good. Senoebi's variety of therapy was like Starfleet's, where you were supposed to 'find your own way' and utterly expose yourself emotionally in the process. She could not see why this was necessary, since Senoebi had already so thoroughly exposed her the day before. He could do anything he wanted. With her. The tension increased inside her.

"Well, I don't think I'm getting anything out of this anymore. May I sit down, please?"

No answer. Janeway waited, but he didn't speak back. Senoebi's arms still remained around her and it was getting increasingly uncomfortable for her to stay still. But she didn't want to move because it would accentuate her physical contact with him. Even through the fabric of her uniform and his layer of clothes, she had a fair idea of what he was built like, the rounded muscles of his arms, the extra skeletal structure that supported his second set of arms. His clothes no longer smelled floral, they smelled more like him . . .

She started and pulled back just far enough so that the front of her was no longer touching the front of him. She looked down at her feet, and his. Her shoes were black and polished. His shoes were rough, very dark blue and looked like they were of the same course material as his coat. Senoebi wore his own kind of uniform. Janeway could feel herself blushing and her pulse increased.

This wasn't going well.

"May I please sit down?" she repeated. If he would just say something, she could catch some clue as to what was supposed to happen next, what was expected of her.

He didn't say anything. Janeway clenched her mouth shut. She'd already given away too much, by the strain in her voice, by speaking first. They were half a step apart now, but his hands remained relaxed and resting on her shoulders and back. His touch now embarrassed her and she could feel her blood pressure going up. He wasn't doing anything and he was still . . . . controlling her.

Janeway tightened her hands into fists. The worst part of it was how much she had wanted to be used, to lie down and let his mind lap her up as he had back on the space station. Any thoughts of saving Chakotay's life had vanished into her sudden desire for pleasure. Senoebi hadn't invaded her thoughts; he had owned her body, and some part of her mind seemed to want nothing more than to return to that bliss. She'd distracted herself with work the night before to keep herself from even thinking about it. But she had been so nervous that she could hardly talk to anyone more than a few minutes at a time and she'd done more pacing than working alone in her ready room. And the doctor had been right to give her a sedative the night before. She would never have gotten any sleep on her own.

Janeway shuddered, repulsed by what she was thinking. The worst type of mind control had to be the kind that was embraced freely. She didn't think that she was a danger to the ship. But to herself, she wasn't sure.

She stared at his pale blue tunic, a little rumpled from the physical contact, like bed sheets that had been recently slept in. Janeway shut her eyes and tried to jettison that thought. She wasn't the slightest bit attracted to Senoebi. His skin was pastel green, he had a rounded plain face, few and wiry hairs and four arms. But he did have a great mind.

Opening her eyes, she swallowed and lifted her head to look at his face. He passively gazed back. Janeway mentally dared herself to look right into Senoebi's eyes. With a tiny change of expression, he looked back at her. She got nothing from him. No thrill, no mind seduction, no boundless pleasure to sink into.

Janeway breathed quickly, her body still anticipating . . . something. She felt like she was trying to stare down every horrible, finger-probing humiliation possible on her person.

She dropped her head. It was like a phobia. She was shaking, but having stared right into Senoebi's face and succeeded without giving into her body's reflexes, she was determined to stand there until he gave in and told her what the next step in this therapy of his was.

But her feet really were starting to hurt. And after awhile her neck started bothering her too. Janeway's resolve wavered. It was foolish of her to think that she could get out of talking about what had happened. Any kind of therapy always cornered you into it. That was the whole purpose of it, so she was just delaying the inevitable. But how could she start without getting herself in too deep?

- - - End Part 1